


Opis Dei

by bethbrokes



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Eisette's SG-11 'verse, F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-08
Updated: 2012-10-17
Packaged: 2017-11-15 22:24:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/532425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethbrokes/pseuds/bethbrokes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A routine mission turns sinister for SG-1 while, back at the SGC, Jack awaits an important decision.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set between Threads and Avalon, before SG-1 gets split up. Slightly AU because it features Janet later on and I refuse to write a fic in which the doctor is not Janet.  
> Originally published last year on FF, but still ongoing.

From behind a thin silk veil, the Stargate was being observed - in particular, the piece of machinery that had just come through it. The MALP trundled across the event horizon and came to rest a few metres from the gate. Something on its back twisted, as if searching for something. Then, in an instant, something large and metal followed it through the gate and launched into the sky, leaving a cloud of smoke and frightening any of the ampelou that had been brave enough to venture into the clearing. The veiled observer twitched, as the ampelou fled into the forest.

A knock on his office door made Jack look up, with a start. He'd begun writing a letter of resignation, he was sure, but apparently he'd drifted off into some kind of daydream after a few sentences.

I regretfully inform you that I wish to retire, in order to … In order to what? That was the question. They'd want some kind of explanation as to why he was retiring at the height of his career, and he couldn't exactly tell them it was so he could date Carter properly. That was the point where he'd begun to drift before, into thoughts of Carter and the last weekend they'd spent together at his cabin.

Another, more urgent, knock prevented him from pursuing that line of thought again. He straightened up in his chair.

"Yes?" he said, as one of the many random airmen on the base timidly cracked the door open, only to have it pushed firmly open by General George Hammond.

"Thank you, Airman, I can take it from here."

A nervous salute, and the man had shut Jack's office door behind him.

"General!" said Jack, with a smile and a sloppy salute, as he stood up. "Good to see you. Come to check I haven't trashed your office?"

Hammond chuckled, and snapped a salute back, before settling into the chair opposite Jack, who sat back down.

"Jack, I think we've reached the point where you can call me George."

"Yessir." He wheeled his chair in closer to the desk. "Alright George, what brings you to Cheyenne Mountain? I thought they had you working hard in Washington."

Hammond's right cheek quirked up into an amused smile.

"Actually, Jack, I'm retiring. I'm here to offer you the job."

The friendly smile on Jack's face hardened, and his eyes darkened slightly.

"George, with all due respect, I don't want the job. In fact, I was thinking of retiring myself."

He pushed away from the desk a little, and leant back in his chair.

"The President feels you're the best man for it, and I'm inclined to agree." Hammond leant in and placed a forearm along the edge of the desk. "Jack, if this is about Colonel Carter-"

"Of course it's about Carter!" Jack snapped quietly, more frustrated and tired than angry. He stood, walking over to the window, and his tone levelled, becoming softer and more exasperated. "George, I've been her commanding officer for 8 damn years – had feelings for her almost as long – and can you honestly say that, in all that time, our feelings for each other have ever affected the running of this operation?"

Over his shoulder he heard as sigh from Hammond.

"No, Jack, I can't. And I'd be willing to bet that nor can anyone else." There was a pause, and Jack heard a creak from the chair as Hammond stood. He turned. "I'll see what I can do... Perhaps, in light of the circumstances, they can make an exception..."

"If they want me, they're gonna have to, General. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've a briefing to attend. SG-1 are off to scout a potential source of naquadah."

Hammond chuckled at the obvious lack of enthusiasm in Jack's voice. "I'll see myself out then. Give my best wishes to SG-1."

"Yes sir."

Jack saluted as Hammond left his office, then crossed the room to go through the door into the briefing room, where Colonel Carter, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c were all waiting.

Carter quickly stood, and he grinned as he met her eyes and she smiled slightly. She'd been extra careful lately, making sure to salute and stand up whenever he entered or left the room. He supposed he should act a little more... official, as well, but it was hard to. Well, he'd never treated any of his team like that before, and he was damned if he was gonna start now.

"At ease, Colonel." He waited until she'd settled to continue. "Okay, you've all had time to read through the briefing notes. Sorry about that -" He wasn't. "- but General Hammond stopped by. He says hi..." He trailed off, looking down at his notes.

"Uh, Jack?" Daniel said, questioningly. "What was General Hammond doing here?"

Jack looked up at him, a wry smile plastered on his face. "Oh, the usual. Just checking on his office. Any questions about the mission? Should be a simple recon: scout out the natives, figure if they're friendly or not, make contact if they are. That kind of thing..."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow at Carter, who shrugged.

"Sir? Is everything okay?"

He broke into a genuine smile, then masked it – albeit badly – at the smirk on Daniel's face.

"Everything's fine, Carter, so how's about we get back to the mission?"

"I also believe that would be wise, O'Neill."

Jack dragged his gaze away from Carter's amused smile to nod at Teal'c.

"Thank you! Any insights, T?"

"It is possible that such a planet may also have been discovered by the Goa'uld. We should exercise caution when approaching the local population."

"You heard him, kids; exercise caution. Now, if there's nothing else to add, you're scheduled to leave in an hour. Standard protocol; make radio contact after 24 hours, and make sure to stop by the infirmary before you get geared up. The doc said something about shots." He clapped in mock enthusiasm, and stood, watching them leave. Carter saluted, he grinned, and she beamed back at him, shaking her head as she filed down the staircase to the control room.

George, he thought, you'd better come through for us.

The event horizon whooshed into non-existence as Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c stepped through. They were standing in a small, grassy clearing, which was only about the size of the Gate Room, and surrounded by dense forest. Daniel spoke first, interrupting the thick silence which had filled the air as if it were seeping from the trees.

"Well, looks like the natives weren't expecting us. Maybe they didn't see the MALP."

"They should have seen the UAV, at least. The report said it flew right over their settlement."

He shrugged. As they were in no immediate danger, he pulled a small cloth out of his pocket, took his glasses off to clean them, then replaced them on his face to turn slowly around, looking for a path away from the gate. Sam had had the same idea, and spun slowly on the spot, her P90 aimed instinctively at chest-height amongst the trees. Teal'c voiced his own unease.

"Colonel Carter, Daniel Jackson, I do not like this place. It feels somehow like a trap."

Sam nodded, keeping her eyes on the gloom between the tall trunks.

"I know what you mean. It's like we're surrounded or something. I'm getting a weird feeling..."

"Do you sense a Goa'uld presence, Colonel Carter?"

"No - I guess that's something. You?"

"I concur. It would also appear the Stargate is little used. I do not believe this is a Goa'uld planet, Colonel Carter. Perhaps we can hope that, if we are being observed, they will believe us peaceful."

She shrugged, and slung her gun at her side, keeping a hand on it just in case.

"Daniel!" she called, realising the archaeologist had wandered closer to the undergrowth at the far edge of the clearing, "Can you see any sort of path?"

"I think so... It's not much of one, though. I can't see any footprints either."

Sam checked her compass as she and Teal'c walked over to him.

"Well, it's heading in the right direction, at least."

A twig snapped loudly behind her, and she spun (thankfully without reaching for her gun). Teal'c was crouched in the centre of the path, his hands resting on a branch on either side.

"What is it, Teal'c?" Daniel sounded a little creeped out. If she was honest, he sounded like Sam felt.

"These branches have been moved somehow. It is almost as if they have been made to grow away from the path."

The branches he had indicated were bent, practically at right angles. Although they seemed to have grown, and the some of the tips had bent back in, they looked like – at some point in the last few years – their growth had been purposefully controlled to keep the path clear. She noticed a few other overhanging and overgrown branches showed the same signs of cultivation.

"I guess we can assume this isn't just an animal run, then." she said, beginning to lead the way down the track.

"Indeed."


	2. Chapter 2

Daniel slapped a mosquito that had landed on his forearm. He missed it, and swore irritably as it flew away, swooping lazily through the air towards Sam, who was walking up ahead a good distance from him. Teal'c was positioned in the middle, a few feet away but still in earshot. He saw Sam similarly slap the bug away, but guessed from the lack of expletives that her aim had been better than his.

They'd been walking this path for a few hours now, and so far the only signs they'd seen that it was getting nearer to the settlement had been more of those weirdly warped branches. He'd started counting interesting rocks at one point - occasionally they'd go along a section where football-seized chunks of what looked like a mix of granite and quartz littered the sides of the path at the bases of the ever-present trees – but he'd lost count. He spotted another one, and started again.

"One." he muttered. Teal'c must have heard, because he turned his head a little in Daniel's direction, but before he could raise an eyebrow Sam's voice filtered back along the path.

"Guys, I think we're getting to a clearing."

They both quickened their pace to meet Sam, who'd slowed, and together the three of them made their way carefully out of the trees...

And into another deserted clearing. This one was larger than the one in which they'd found the gate, and as they cleared the trees completely, Daniel noticed a patch of thinner grass. Not that any of the grass was all that long. Which was strange, actually, considering how overgrown the path was.

He pointed over at the patch when Carter looked his way, and she nodded. It seemed nobody wanted to break the heavy silence that was present here as well. The place he'd noticed seemed at first to just be a circle of slightly lighter, shorter grass, with more moss in than the rest and about 3 metres across, but as Teal'c strode from one side to the other, there was a thud where he had stepped in the centre. Nudging it with the tip of her boot, Sam dislodged some of the greenery to reveal a chunk of wood. She looked at Daniel inquiringly, who nodded and took out the trowel he carried with him everywhere in case of archaeology emergencies. By the time he'd dug the top inch of earth away, they could see a wooden disc – maybe a metre or so in diameter if Daniel judged right.

"Careful." said Sam as she made to move it with her boot, and both Daniel and Teal'c took a step back. When she flipped it to the side they could see it had been covering a deep hole, the rim of which was denoted by a ring of bronze-coloured metal. The ring had thin, wire-like structures coming from it that seemed to be embedded in the soil in every direction around and below it.

That, however, wasn't the strange part.

"Is that... is it glowing?" Daniel asked, perplexed, as he stared down to the bottom of the hole. There was an amber glow, which seemed to be reflected by more copperish fibres in the walls of the pit as well – or maybe they were glowing themselves, but to a lesser extent. As he stared, he thought he saw the light source, whatever it was, shimmer a little. Like liquid.

"Hey, guys, I'm gonna try something." he said, looking at the ground surrounding them. Teal'c raised an eyebrow, and Sam opened her mouth to object as he straightened up with a small stone in his hand, then dropped it in before anyone could say anything. Sam frowned as they all listened intently. It took a good thirty seconds before they heard a splash that was a slightly different sound than it would have been were it water in there, but the amber light remained. There was a pause, then a simultaneous sigh of relief from all three.

"Daniel!" Sam frowned slightly. "We didn't know what that might have done!"

He shrugged, smiling at her across the pit to put her at ease again. "Well, at least we know it's a liquid that's not water. That also glows." He leant over carefully. "I wonder what those wires are. Maybe they're connect- hey!" He yelled as what looked like a living plant appeared from the ground right behind Sam. He reached for his gun and took aim, but the alarm in her eyes as she looked in his direction made him turn.

He was looking at a mass of thick golden and green cords, no more than a few inches in front of him, which seemed to have sprouted from a main body of the same kind of vines. Realising it was vaguely humanoid – in shape at least, and this was its neck equivalent, he aimed both his gun and his gaze upwards. His gun was knocked out of his hand as soon as he moved it, and he vaguely noticed that the eyes of his attacker had wide oval pupils, like a frog's, but irises of a very familiar amber colour, before he saw, in the corner of his eye, a vine whip out from the central mass of the creature's body and scratch his face. It stung like a bitch, and his eyelids and limbs grew instantly heavy. As he fell to the ground the familiar sounds of Sam and Teal'c's struggling stopped, and his sight dizzily faded into blackness.

There was a sharp tapping on General O'Neill's office door, and he stood up to open it himself this time. That nervous guy was beginning to get on his nerves.

He was greeted by an ominous sight.

"George! I wasn't expecting you back so soon..." His eyes were drawn instantly to the envelope in General Hammond's hand as the other man sat down at the desk. Jack shut the door, nodding to the Airmen outside, and walked over to sit behind his desk, opposite Hammond, who sighed.

Jack smiled, and clasped his hands together on top of the desk. Both were to mask his nerves as he waited the results of the life-changing decision that had, presumably, now been made.

"I hate to sound impatient, sir, but... Well?" There was a serious edge to his tone that General Hammond had heard enough to recognise. The older General couldn't help but chuckle.

"Jack, after I left your office yesterday I called the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I told him your reasons for declining his offer." He took a deep breath, noting as he did so that Jack's hands were clasped a little tighter. "He flew me to the Pentagon to give my opinion in a meeting of the Joint Chiefs solely regarding your position as Head of Homeworld security and any obstacles you might have in accepting the offer." He smiled reassuringly at Jack, whose hand were now gripping so tightly the knuckles had gone white. "I assured them that none of your personal feelings for any member of your team had ever caused problems in your command, and that you have strictly adhered to all regulations except in circumstances beyond your control." He paused. Jack's grip had loosened.

"Ah, the old 'aliens made me do it' defence." He couldn't help himself. Joking was just one of his defence mechanisms. He felt numb - like he was in the eye of a storm - but, as Hammond smiled, he tensed.

"Precisely."

"And what did they say?" His tone was calm, as if he were only asking about the weather or something equally unimportant - rather than whether or not he could be with the woman he loved.

Yes, he loved her. He could finally admit it now he was on the brink of either retirement or whatever scheme the IOA had cooked up for him now. He'd never been able to fully let himself believe it. Damn regs. He refocused as Hammond slid the envelope over to him.

"See for yourself, Jack." There was a smile on his lips as Jack picked up the envelope, opened it, and-

"Unscheduled offworld activation. Unscheduled offworld activation."

\- dropped it on the desk, practically launching himself out of his chair. Hammond followed suit.

"How many teams are offworld?" he asked as he instinctively made his way through the briefing room and down the stairs into the control room, followed closely by Jack. Old habits apparently died hard for General Hammond.

"Just SG-1 and SG-13. SG-13 are doing a routine check on Argos, SG-1 were supposed to be checking in in a couple of hours..." he trailed off, realising what that meant, "Crap!"

He strode past Hammond and over to the bank of computers.

"Any IDC yet?" he asked Walter tersely.

"Not yet sir." Jack almost hissed in frustration, until Walter continued. "No, wait, receiving IDC... It's SG-1, sir."

"Open the iris!"

"Yes sir." The iris grated open. Jack stared tensely at it for a few seconds, until a figure materialised. Teal'c. Teal'c who was in no hurry to move and make space on the ramp for his team-mates, Jack noticed. He rushed down to the Gate room, arrived as the wormhole destabilised. Teal'c turned at his approach.

"Stand down, airmen." Jack said, gesturing, as he stepped towards his friend. "T, what the hell happened? Where's Carter and Daniel?"

Teal'c looked grave - well, graver than usual.

"We were attacked by the species indigenous to that planet, O'Neill. Colonel Carter and Daniel Jackson were captured."

In the control room, General Hammond sighed.

Just like old times.


	3. Chapter 3

Sam woke groggily, becoming increasingly more aware that she was not in her bed at home, at her desk, or at Jack's house, but in a very strange cell. She started, sitting bolt upright, when she saw where she was. Taking a look a look around, she assessed for danger, keeping an eye out for the creatures that had stunned them. To her relief, there weren't any in here with her and Daniel, who was still unconscious. She took the opportunity to nudge him awake, kicking him in the shins when that didn't work, before turning her attention to the cell itself.

It was roughly circular, with no visible doors and a single hole – just big enough to put a hand through - about 6 feet from the ground on the section of wall opposite from them. It was rounded, like a knothole in a tree. Exactly like a knothole in a tree, she realised, as her eyes adjusted to the light and she saw that the walls and floor were, in fact, lined with bark.

Her hand went to the knife she kept on her belt, and she noted as it did so that her radio was gone. A quick glance at Daniel told her his had been taken too, along with both of their guns. He hadn't woken up yet – maybe he had a lower tolerance to whatever drug had knocked them out – so she shook him by the shoulder.

"Daniel!" she hissed, her knife in hand lest she was heard by one of their captors.

"Wha?" Daniel pulled himself up from the ground, looking around with bleary eyes until he saw her. His eyes widened when he saw the knife, and he cleared his throat before looking around the cell. "Sam," he said, as he turned back to her, "What's going on? Why are we in a tree?"

She almost laughed at his summary of their current situation.

"I don't know, Daniel, but take a look at this." She gestured to the nearest bit of wall. "I was just about to see what's underneath the bark." She flicked the blade of her knife out to cut a section of bark away. Daniel leant in, blocking the little light that was filtering through the knothole. She put a hand on his chest to push him away a little as she gouged a chunk out of the wall. There was only wood underneath – living wood, as if they actually were inside a tree. A hollow tree with bark on the inside.

"Whoa." She removed her hand from his chest so that Daniel could take a closer look, whilst she peeled a little more of the bark away with the other.

"Yeah," she replied.

They both stared at the hole she'd carved for a couple of seconds. Sam still felt a little weary, and she could tell from the way Daniel's eyelids kept drooping that he did too.

"Daniel, we have to find a way out. Can you lift me up a little so I can see out of that hole over there? There's light coming through, so it looks like our best chance of escape." She strode over, eyeing the bark-covered edges of the gap, looking for any weak spots. Daniel stumbled over too, and got down on one knee, without protest, so she could use him as a step. That was definitely a sign he was still somewhat out of it; normally he'd have grumbled at least a little, even though she was obviously the lighter of the two, and he'd gotten a lot stronger since he'd joined SG-1...

Peering through, she saw the back of one of the vine creature's heads.

 _Holy Hannah!_ She thought, Is it made entirely of vines?

As if it had heard her, it turned suddenly, moving fluidly to the slit and blocking the light. She found herself looking into its face – or what passed for a face in these creatures, anyway. The eyes were just wide oval pupils fringed in golden irises, surrounded by a mass of moving, green and wheat-coloured vines. They were writhing and twisting all over its body like snakes, and she could see they were paler and more golden closer the the skin, and graduated to first light green for the majority of their length, then dark green on the tips, which flicked randomly out of the wriggling mass. She took an involuntary step back, tumbling off Daniel's leg and falling to the ground. Daniel looked from her to the slit, then froze. For all their trips to other planets, they'd never come across something quite this alien before.

Then something else made Sam gasp as she struggled to pick herself up off the floor.

_"Humanss. Calm. Ampelou will not harm."_

The creature seemed to be speaking directly into her mind. A look at Daniel's shocked face told her he'd heard it too. He was mouthing something to himself that she thought might be 'ampelou'. The creature spoke again, and this time she could see nothing that might be a mouth moving.

_"Humans safe. Ampelou will not harm. Meet senate now."_

Daniel seemed to shake himself out of his shock enough to say aloud.

"Ampelou. Is that you? Is that your name?"

The creature said nothing, just turned as thudding footsteps could be heard from somewhere near it. A second face appeared at the hole, peering in briefly, and then cracks appeared around the edge, spreading downwards, in a way that could only have been controlled, to form a rectangular door shape. One side split completely, while the other maintained a little bark to form a sort of hinge, on which the new door swung inwards, revealing the two creatures towering over them at over 6 feet in height. More speech formed in her head, and Sam could sense somehow that it came from the newcomer, which seemed to be slightly darker in colour than the original creature, with flecks of brown in its facial vines.

_"Follow ampelou. Humans meet senate now. Nour-ish-ment."_

It turned to lead them along the tall, wide corridor they now found themselves in, which appeared to be composed of the same kind of organic material as the cell, with windows at the sides that let in a greenish light filtered through the leaves of the trees outside.

The original creature gestured for them to go ahead of it in such a human way that Sam began to feel a little more at ease. They had said that she and Daniel were safe, after all... but what was this 'senate'?

Jack paced along the length of the briefing room, staring at the floor; he only glanced up as SG-11 filed in. The team saluted first at Hammond, and then at him, and sat at the table. With a sigh, Jack took his place at the head of the table and looked around at them. Major Steele was looking straight at him, solemn and respectful, but she glanced over at Colonel Anders, who was sat opposite her and who gave a slight nod of solidarity when Jack also looked over at him. Next to Anders, furthest from Jack – bar Teal'c, who was stood at the other end of the table looking serious - sat Lieutenant Maycomb, who seemed to be avoiding his gaze. He vaguely recalled seeing her at one of Daniel's compulsory lectures on how to speak Goa'uld – actually taking notes, to her credit. His eyes flicked to Major Lorne, sat to his left, next to Steele. At one point there had been rumours that those two were involved, but since they were both the same rank and Anders said he hadn't noticed anything on missions, Hammond had let it slide. They seemed to be just friends now, anyway. Lorne's eyes met his, and the major smiled reassuringly.

Jack couldn't have returned the smile, even if he'd wanted to. With a nod of acknowledgement, he cleared his throat to address all of them.

"I'm guessing you've all heard about SG-1?" he paused, though it was rhetorical, and there were a few tentative glances exchanged before he continued. "They went to, ah..." he glanced at the notes in front of him "P5S398 at 1500 hours yesterday. Teal'c came back alone at around 1430 today after being knocked out by..." he looked directly at Teal'c. "Tree people, right?" It came out sharper than it was meant, but Teal'c simply bowed his head.

"Indeed, O'Neill. Or rather, 'plant people', to be more precise. They seemed to be humanoid in stature, though they had what appeared to be plant-like vines covering the surface of their skin. When touched by certain vines, Major Carter, Daniel Jackson, and myself were rendered unconscious. When I awoke, I found myself alone, and retreated to the Stargate." He looked at Jack when he stopped speaking, awaiting further instruction.

"Right. Vine people." Jack feigned nonchalance. "You said they attacked after you found this well thing, right?"

"Indeed. It appeared to be wired into the ground in some way. It is possible these creatures are somehow connected to it."

"We'll keep that in mind, thank you, Teal'c." Anders spoke, nodding his thanks to the Jaffa, before Jack had managed to find a suitably disinterested-seeming response. Jack shook his head with a smile, in mock disbelief.

"You know your mission, then, Colonel?"

"Yes sir. Rescue the remainder of SG-1, preferably peaceably in order to maintain potential trading links."

Hammond chuckled slightly to Jack's right. Jack checked his watch.

"All right, we embark at 1600 hours exactly. Dismissed."

"Wait, you're coming?" Though Anders shot a mildly disapproving look at Lorne for his outburst, Jack only nodded, his eyes fixed on the gleaming gate, just visible over Lorne's shoulder.

"I'll be leading this mission, Major."

"Yes sir." He barely saw Lorne's salute and exit as he stared blankly at the gate for a moment - wondering what had happened to Daniel and Sam, what the hell was up with these plant aliens, and what decision had actually been put into that letter. It still lay unopened on his desk, its contents a mystery.

Well, they'd be staying a mystery until he got Sam back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some quick grammar; Ampelou with a capital 'a' is the name of their race, ampelou is both the singular and plural for individual creatures.
> 
> Also, thanks to Eisette over on FF.net for lending me her SG-11 OC's.


	4. Chapter 4

"Sam?" Daniel hissed. The 'ampelou' was them down a long corridor that looked as if it might open out at the end. She turned slightly to acknowledge him, keeping an eye on the creature behind them as she did so. Its expression, if it had one, didn't change.

"Yeah?"

"I've been thinking." He kept his voice to a low murmur but she was able to pick it up easily, though the creatures might not be. "Maybe these..." he glanced around, but the creatures didn't seem to be taking any notice of their hushed conversation. "aliens aren't all that alien after all."

Sam raised an eyebrow. They seemed pretty alien to her. "Care to explain?"

"Well, they said 'ampelou', right? The Greek word for 'vine' is αμπέλου."

"You think they're Greek?" her voice came out a little louder than she'd intended, and she leant in to continue. "Daniel, do you think it might be a coincidence this time...?" It was his turn to raise an eyebrow, and she half smiled. "Okay, so, they're Greek. How?"

This time he had no answer. "I don't know. But this 'senate' might tell us."

"That does sound pretty Greek, I'll admit."

He opened his mouth to reply, but stopped, distracted now by the fact that they were approaching the end of the... corridor? Tunnel? Branch? Regardless, he could see it opened up into a large chamber, filled with what appeared to be natural light which, as they moved further in, he could see was coming from large knotholes higher up, near the ceiling. A ring of about 11 wooden seats stood against the bark walls of the circular chamber, the one directly ahead blocked by the body of the ampelou in front of him. Glancing at Sam, he saw her attention had been entirely caught by a large gemstone embedded in the wall. It could have been a form of amber, were it not for the fact that it was glowing. Similar stones were scattered throughout the walls all over the chamber and Daniel now noticed that they were contributing to the natural light filtering down from above so that the room was lit entirely. They looked as if they were, in fact, a solidified form of the strange liquid from the well. As he turned to examine one closer to him, Daniel saw that the ampelou that had previously been ahead of them had now moved, guiding them towards the centre of the room - towards a figure in the middle seat of the ring who had been blocked before. His eyes widened. The figure was that of a human woman. A human woman who was now smiling broadly at them.

The woman was tall with a full but muscular figure that Daniel could just make out beneath the layers of her green gossamer gown, and her strawberry-blonde hair was piled elegantly and loosely at the back of her neck – bar a few tendrils that curled down at the side of her pale, oval face. She clapped her long-fingered hands very visibly in front of her, and immediately five of the creatures began making their way into the chamber through cracks in the walls, peeling holes for themselves with golden-green tendrils. As Daniel and Sam stood frozen, the creatures made their way into the remaining seats. The human woman beamed and stood up, arms open. Sam's hand went to her knife, now back at her belt, though they had stopped about 20 feet away from her.

"I am Opis, leader of this senate."

-/-/-

Jack stepped through the gate as soon as the wormhole was established, not wanting to hear the familiar sound of combat boots walking up the ramp behind him when he knew they weren't his team's. Teal'c had apparently had the same idea and emerged on P5S398 a few seconds after him, on his right-hand side. They immediately moved to the edges, ensuring they were alone in the clearing and turning back to watch SG-11 follow them through.

Anders looked to Jack, who nodded tersely and began issuing orders.

"Right, Anders, Lorne, you're with me up front. Teal'c, I want you to stay at least 20 feet behind us until I signal otherwise. Maycomb, Steel, you're with Teal'c." He wasn't being sexist - how could he after working alongside Carter for 8 years? He knew that Steel and Maycomb could more easily move undetected than he, Lorne and Anders, so with any luck if he was captured they could follow without being seen. He'd supervised some of Major Steel's training, in fact. She could move almost as quietly as Teal'c.

He looked around, making sure they all understood, then strode off to the path, leaving Anders and Lorne to follow – Lorne giving Steel a quick eye-roll and Maycomb a reassuring smile before he took his place at the back of the group, behind Anders, and they were engulfed by the dark tree-line.

Major Eva Steel chuckled quietly to herself in response to Lorne's eye roll. When Teal'c raised an eyebrow in her direction, she spoke quietly – in case Jack wasn't quite out of earshot - but friendlily to clarify.

"I wouldn't want to be one of these tree things when General O'Neill gets his hands on 'em, would you?"

Teal'c nodded, a slight smile twitching the corners of his mouth. "Indeed not, Major Steel."

Maycomb smiled at their brief conversation, tucking a strand of long, blonde hair behind her ear, as she moved to check the path. "I think they've gotten far enough now..." The beam of light from the torch mounted on her gun looked weak in the pitch-blackness, and disappeared completely after a few feet. It was as if the trees themselves were absorbing all the light they could, Eva thought, as she took a few tentative steps in. But that was ridiculous.

The silence swallowed them.

-/-/-

After a second of mildy-confused staring on Daniel's part, and calculated risk assessment on Sam's, she nodded to him, and he stepped forward.

"I am Daniel Jackson and this is Colonel Carter. We are peaceful explorers from a planet called Earth. We, uh, we meant no harm-"

"No matter. No harm was done to the lacrima heliandum." She waved a hand in a - very human - dismissive gesture. Sam mouthed 'lacrima heliandum?' to Daniel, who shrugged.

Opis waved to something over their shoulder and they both spun in alarm to see yet another creature come in – this time through the door – carrying a simple wooden tray with several bowls on it. She smiled her kindly smile again and nodded graciously to the ampelou as she took the tray, who nodded clumsily back at her before leaving. She turned back and began advancing towards them, holding the tray out to them.

"You must be thirsty after your time asleep. Have some wine, and food. I prepared the honey cakes myself this very morning." She looked fondly around her. "The ampelou haven't much skill with food preparation, between you and I. But then, they have no need of it!" A lilting giggle escaped her as she raised the tray for Daniel to take some. With a nod from Sam, he took a cake and a small bowl of wine, and Opis smiled widely.

"And you Colonel Carter?" She stepped closer, less than a metre away from Sam, whose hand darted to her belt at once.

Opis' eyes widened as she looked at the knife digging into her stomach, dropping the tray as her hands fell, trembling, at her sides. The ampelou around the edges had stood, ready to move at a signal from their leader, who spoke instead in a weak voice.

"Colonel Carter? Have I offended in some way? Please, I meant no harm."

Daniel moved turned, hands out in calming, non-aggressive manner, and spoke to Sam in a low voice. "Uh, Sam? What's with the knife."

When Sam spoke her blue eyes never left Opis' golden-brown ones, and her voice was cold and steely. "She's a Goa'uld, Daniel."


	5. Chapter 5

The silence in the chamber was almost palpable for a few long seconds, shattered only by another of Opis' giddy, almost childish, laughs. Daniel could actually see Sam's eyes narrowing in hatred.

"Are you sure?" he half-whispered, half-hissed, as Opis looked down at the knife in what looked like bemusement. "She doesn't seem like one so far." His eyes were fixed on the ampelou surrounding them, ready to pounce – metaphorically, at least – should their leader show any sign of distress.

"Positive." The blue eyes were fixed on Opis' face, now watching their conversation with an amused smile. "I can sense the symbiote in her. She's a Goa'uld alright." Sam tried to swallow down the metallic taste on her tongue that always indicated a symbiote was near - sweeter than iron, almost cloying. Janet had said it was a naquadah compound produced when the goa'uld's naquadah-based pheromones got into her system, triggering the gut-feeling she got in the presence of the goa'uld. It was faint, but it was definitely there.

A delicate cough made Daniel look from Sam to Opis again.

"May I explain, Daniel Jackson? I am no more Goa'uld than Colonel Carter is." She smiled a knowing smile. "Though, like her, I am more like a Goa'uld than you are." Her words were carefully phrased, and spoken assuasively as she met Sam's eyes with a placid smile.

Sam's gaze finally broke away from Opis at that, and she turned warily to Daniel, who shrugged.

"Why don't we hear her out?"

"Fine." Sam removed her knife, but didn't lower it, and Opis stepped back gracefully a few steps before pulling the pin out of the bun at the nape of her neck. Golden curls cascaded down her back, and a pale hand swept them aside as she turned her head, revealing a long, thick, white scar at the back of her neck. There was no mistaking the entry scar. It looked like it had been a bad one, too. She sighed a little as she let the wave of golden hair fall back into place, curling gently down a back covered in green silk. Her voice, when she spoke, was calm and soothing, and Daniel felt himself relaxing. Sam found herself gripping her knife harder.

"I was once host to a Goa'uld. She called herself Ops, wife of Saturnus and queen of the Golden Age." There was a faint hint of pride in her voice, and her golden eyes shone with something strange and unrecognisable. "She abandoned me after an enemy left me - us - to die, and found a new host. She didn't even kill me as she left." The pride had been replaced with a distinct fondness, rather than the usual bitterness of a former host, and Daniel's eyebrows raised a fraction in surprise. Sam had also noticed, and frowned at Opis, her delicate brow furrowing as she maintained a steady grip on her knife. This wasn't exactly convincing so far.

"If you're not a host any more, how can I still sense you? There shouldn't be enough naquadah in your blood for that."

Opis sighed, though even her exasperation seemed calm. "I can't explain it fully, Colonel Carter. How can I still sense you?"

"Because you're a goa'uld?" Daniel offered, raising an eyebrow. But his accusation lacked the force it should have, Sam noted. This was beginning to seem familiar.

Opis looked bemused as she smiled at Daniel - as if she found him mildly amusing, like a small child asking a stupid question. Then she turned to Sam to continue, despite the other woman's disbelieving glare.

"I suspect, Colonel Carter, the high levels of naquadah on this planet are enhancing our natural abilities as former hosts to sense the goa'uld. Can you at least accept that possibility?"

Daniel looked at Sam in the way he did when he thought she was wrong, but didn't want to say so. She hated that face. Grudgingly, she lowered her knife to her side at last. Despite the strange gut feeling Sam had about this woman, it was possible. Her usual instinct born from the naquadah in her blood did seem a little weaker than it normally was in the presence of a goa'uld, and Opis hadn't tried to kill them so far... Although she had stunned them and taken them prisoner. Sam spoke with a barely-disguised growl.

"It's possible. We've never seen levels of naquadah this high before." She glanced around to avoid Opis' strangely compelling smile and caught sight of the ampelou surrounding them, who seemed to have relaxed a little - if it were possible to tell whether or not a bundle of vines had relaxed. "So, what about these 'ampelou'? Why do they worship you?"

Opis laughed again, and it was mirrored by the ampelou - strangle crackling noises, like rustling leaves. "They don't worship me. I lead them because they elected me." She turned to walk gracefully back to her seat, green silk swirling around bare feet. Daniel began to follow, maintaining the short distance between them, and Sam drew closer reluctantly. "As for why they accept me into their senate... I can control the lacrima heliandum, as they do." She smiled serenely, apparently content with not elaborating.

Sam looked impatiently to Daniel, who shrugged again, and spoke, irritation tingeing her voice.

"What's lacrima heliandum?"

The voices of ten ampelou echoed in their heads.

_"Life."_

Opis beamed at the ampelou like a proud mother as Sam and Daniel both flinched at the sudden intrusion into their minds.

"Aren't they wonderful creatures? The lacrima heliandum is almost like... A goddess. Their life-force, and that of the planet." She waved a hand at the lamps. "There's some of it."

"They worship a rock as a goddess? Kind of like a mother goddess... Fascinating." Daniel had recovered from the shock and was now peering at the closest ampelou with renewed interest. Sam frowned - she'd look 10 years older by the time she was finished with this mission. _Almost as old as Jack_. The thought pushed itself into her brain before she could stop it and the resultant pang of guilt. Occasionally, on harder missions, she missed his comforting presence, and it manifested into bitter thoughts like that. She pushed words out of her mouth in an attempt to distract her brain - which was difficult for her.

"How do you control it, then? It it some kind of device to control them?" Opis laughed. That laugh was getting on Sam's nerves.

"Nothing so sinister. The lacrima heliandum heals." She practically sang the last word, and Sam could see a smile forming on Daniel's face. Honestly! Show a man a pretty blonde. Her mood lightened for a fraction of a second - thankfully Jack was no different - until Opis continued, her smooth voice grating somehow on Sam's nerves. "Why don't I show you? Provided Daniel Jackson remains here." Sam made to protest, but Opis cut her off, momentarily placing a soft hand on Sam's arm in a reassuring, but firm, grip. "The ampelou will not harm him. You have my word and theirs. I'm afraid he cannot come too close to the lacrima heliandum."

"Why not?"

"He does not have the gift you and I do." A charming smile broke up the honeyed words. "I worry that it would be further disrupted if he were in close proximity to it."

"The gift? You mean the naquadah in my blood?" While Jolinar had given Sam some pretty useful knowledge and a built-in goa'uld detector, it was not a gift she'd have chosen, and the sentiment surfaced in her tone. Opis seemed taken aback by her reaction.

"Of course. Even on other planets, without lacrima heliandum, you can control devices a mere human could not."

"A mere human?" Sam could barely keep the snark out of her voice. Daniel intervened, ever the diplomat.

"Uh, weren't you just 'a mere human' once?" Opis' face fell, in a perfect picture of meekness.

"I did not mean to offend, Colonel Carter. I... I promise you will understand when you see the lacrima heliandum. It is truly amazing. Like nothing on Earth. Or anywhere, for that matter." Her change in manner, though sudden, actually seemed pretty convincing now. Maybe she was telling the truth. Being host to a Goa'uld for a long time could make you a little... Odd.

Or maybe she'd just figured out which buttons to press. Either way, it was working; Sam was itching to see what the hell this thing was.

"Daniel?"

He shrugged, dragging his eyes away from Opis' expectant gaze. "I trust them, Sam. They've been pretty civil so far, and it might explain why your goa'uld senses are tingling."

Goa'uld senses. It was like something Jack would say.

"Fine." If only Jack were here.

-/-/-

Jack was not happy. It had been hours and they'd not broken out of the trees. They'd radioed Teal'c to check in, and he'd assured them they were going the right way. That had been an hour ago. He glanced back; there was no sight or sound of Steel, Maycomb, and Teal'c. Behind him, Anders and Lorne were looking as grim as he felt. A spattering of light through the thick branches ahead as he turned a corner appeared just as he was preparing to radio Teal'c and complain that they were lost. Silently, he held up a hand to halt Anders and Lorne, then spoke to Teal'c.

"T, we're near the clearing. Stay hidden unless I give the signal. If we're captured, follow at a safe distance until you reach their settlement, then get back to the Stargate and follow the usual protocol. Give us... Oh, 12 hours?" The casual glance at Anders received an equally casual shrug. "12 hours should do it. Got that?"

"Indeed." The radio static distorted Teal'c's usual reply, but Jack replaced the radio and signalled for Lorne and Anders to follow him into the glade.

Lorne and Anders moved cautiously after him over to the well of amber liquid, glancing around, occasionally meeting the other's eye before casting nervous glances at Jack, who had strode purposefully over once there had been no immediate danger.

"What did T say Daniel did to make them attack?" Jack asked, in a low voice.

"He, uh, he threw a rock in, sir." Lorne supplied, his expression puzzled.

"Let's call that plan B, then." Jack replied, turning to look for any gap in the trees that might indicate a path through to the settlement. He turned to Lorne again as the rustle of a UAV printout being pulled out caught his attention. "How far from the settlement are we, Major?"

"About 5 klicks."

"General," Anders spoke carefully, keeping an eye on the tree-line with the practised air of an experienced soldier. "There are snapped branches on all sides. These creatures must have surrounded them."

"And no sign of a path... Damn." He turned, kicking at some of the longer grass around the edge of the circle surrounding the well, and scoured the ground until he found what he was looking for. "Right. Colonel, Major, turn back and retrieve the others. I'll stay here, try and make a path. Understood?"

"Sir?" Creases had appeared in Anders' forehead at the sudden about-face.

"Problem, Colonel?"

"No sir..." he raised an eyebrow, trying to read Jack's calm expression.

"Good. Off you go, Colonel."

Reluctantly, Anders signalled to Lorne to move out, and Jack shook his head in a chuckle as he watched them leave.

Anders was his friend for a reason, Jack knew. They were similar; both good at their job, both caring for their team like family. Sure Jack was at least ten (he didn't dare think 'nearly twenty') years older than Anders, but they had a lot in common - not least a future that might be brightened a little by loosening-up of the frat regs.

Jack wasn't stupid; he'd seen how Anders had seemed to see her with new eyes after the rumours began flying about her and Lorne, how he began to treat too much like just another brother-in-arms while treating her entirely differently at the same time. Jack knew the signs - though maybe he was just more aware of them than he might otherwise be, due to experiencing them firsthand. Yep, the contents of the envelope now locked securely in his desk drawer would affect a lot of people in the precedent they set - one way or another - and Jack knew his friend well enough to know that Charlie Anders was one of them, even if he didn't realise it himself.

Right now, however, Anders was the voice of reason that would stop him from getting to Carter as soon as possible.

_Time for plan B..._

Jack almost cracked a grin as he turned and kicked the stone into the pit, watching its progression as it bounced off the walls on its way down before finally splashing into the liquid base – which triggered a tremor that reverberated up through the ground and spread through the trees, so all that could be heard was the rustling of leaves.

-/-/-

As Opis beamed at Sam's acquiescence the walls began to tremble. While Sam's hand went immediately to the M9 bayonet at her hip, and Daniel took a step towards her, Opis simply cocked her head with a sweet smile to the nearest ampelou, who was apparently indiscriminate in whose mind he spoke to, allowing Sam and Daniel to hear the reply to Opis' unspoken question.

_"More humans disturb the lacrima heliandum."_

The statuesque woman whirled round, green silk flying, to look at Sam – and Sam alone – with a raised eyebrow and an overly wide smile.

"Colonel Carter? The lacrima heliandum is very close to here." Her smile faltered, and changed into a far more genuine and disturbing smile, like that of a preying mantis about to devour its prey, when Sam grabbed her knife and once again held it ready in a fighting stance.

"I don't think so."

"My dear ampelou, would you be so kind as to take that knife away from Colonel Carter?" Daniel stepped forward, arms outstretched in a non-hostile gesture, but a vine shot out from the arm of another ampelou and restrained him, binding him tightly as Sam was disarmed and bound as well. "Thank you." Opis' eyes never once left Sam's steely blue ones, but her tone was much colder when she spoke directly to Sam, whose face was set in what Jack called her 'death glare'.

Opis met her stare, and dismissed it with a smirk that disfigured her beautiful face, twisting her flawless features into a mask of cruelty for one brief moment, before she spoke again, her voice steady and ice-cold.

"They have to be told things very specifically, you know. If I had said 'disarmed' just then, Colonel Carter, you would have found yourself lacking a limb. Or two." She laughed her bubbling laugh again. That, apparently, was genuine. "And, of course, when I heard of your arrival on this planet and instructed the ampelou to 'bring me the humans', well... they left the shol'va, Teal'c, Jaffa as he is." She smiled at the tense glance Daniel and Sam exchanged at that, revealing perfect white teeth. "Yes, I know who you are. The great SG-1, galactic assassins and killers of my kind."

Her voice had taken on a manic edge now, and her eyes were shining with frenzied delight as she moved closer to them, pushing herself almost into them. From the corner of her eye, Sam could see Daniel struggling to break free and having no success. Even if they could shake off these ampelou, God knows how many more would be waiting to recapture them while they attempted to find a way out - if there even was one. The memory of their cell door was all too clear in Sam's mind as she looked around, desperately avoiding Opis' eyes, which bore into her so fiercely she might have been causing real damage. Her tone was fluctuating between seduction and mania, steadily becoming more and more manic.

"They say it took two sets of you to kill Cronus though! That you created artificial copies of yourselves and incited rebellion in the people of Juna! The great SG-1 alone could hardly hope to kill my lord Cronus - of course" a satisfied smile, as she flitted between manic grins and an expression of undisguised hatred "– but your deaths will at least allow me to avenge him fully. You will pay dearly for killing your God..." Opis lowered her voice to a frantic whisper. She spoke so closely to Sam's face that the feel of her breath caused a shiver of disgust to ripple up Sam's spine. Sam struggled to resist the urge to jerk her head back - not that it would have done any good with the tightness of the vines binding her - when Opis spat her final words.

"And for neglecting to kill his queen."


	6. Chapter 6

_"You will pay dearly for killing your god..." Opis' breath came out in ragged gasps as she spoke her manic words, and Sam was disgusted to feel it on her face. She could see the bright flush on the goa'uld's pale visage, and the frantic gleam in her eyes. The vines around Sam's arms cut into her skin, blood welling up around them as she struggled to break free. She was nearly screaming out in pain and frustration as Opis spat her final revelation._

_"And for neglecting to kill his queen!"_

_A final thick tendril crept around Sam's neck, choking and stinging simultaneously as Opis looked on with inhuman glee, and she sunk foggily into the dark._

-/-/-

Anders had been waiting just within the tree line, it seemed, and Jack saw him running back out towards the well the second he felt the tremor, signalling down the path for Lorne to stay. In the time it took him to cross the 30 feet between them, Jack was already surrounded by the creatures a few metres away in all directions.

"Jack! Look out!" Anders was reaching for his gun, but a well-aimed vine shot from the closest alien to whip it out of his hands. There was no time for Anders to reach for his knife, before another vine from the same creature knocked him to the floor, unconscious.

"No!" Jack yelled, turning to take in all the creatures advancing cautiously towards him. Unlike Charlie, he'd made no attempt to defend himself, and the aliens seemed to be waiting until he did to attack, only slithering forward whilst he told himself not to reach for his gun. The vines at the bottom of the creature's long bodies (which had no feet or legs) seemed to propel them forward by gripping the earth beneath them, like roots, and were thicker, yet paler in colour, than the rest of the vines that made up their limbs and bodies.

Slowly, Jack raised his hands. From the corner of his eye he could see two the creatures wrapping Anders in their arm-vines, until he was totally cocooned and suspended between them. At his movement, the creatures stopped simultaneously, and Jack could see their strange golden eyes focusing on him. The vines seemed to calm, moving a little more slowly as they twisted and writhed on their bodies. He cleared his throat, and a few of them twitched. Hastily, he raised his hands over his head, palms as visible as possible, fingers spread wide.

"I come in peace." The cliché had no effect other than making Jack aware of how uncertain he sounded right now. He tried again, aiming for a little more confidence in his voice.

"Take me to your leader."

For a split-second, he could have sworn he felt the air humming around him. Then the creature directly in front of him stepped – no, slithered – a little closer, close enough that Jack had to tip his head up slightly to look at its 'face'. This one was taller than the others, he noticed, at about 6'6'' – though none of them were any shorter than he was. It leant in as if to study his face, and it was only the special forces training in him that stopped him from flinching.

The soft, alien voice that now filtered into his head did, however, cause him to raise an eyebrow.

_"Ampelou will take you to Opis. Pleasssse, sleep human."_

The sight of a thin vine, no wider than a piece of twine, extending slowly towards his face, caused him to step backwards. The creature stopped, the frail green strand halting, suspended in mid-air a few inches from his cheek. Jack spoke again, a hint of worry tingeing his voice, emphasising his words with hands still raised above his head as he focused on the tip of the vine in front of him, which seemed to be covered in hundreds of tiny, barbed hairs.

"How about I come without being vine-whipped? I'm not gonna hurt you, I just want to retrieve my people."

_"Ampelou will not harm. Ampelou only make sleep. Opis will explain."_

"Opis?"

Its golden eyes were still fixed on his, unblinking and unmoving.

_"Leader."_

"Oh." Jack could think of nothing else to say, now that he was surrounded by alien plant creatures who, he was pretty sure, were about to stun him, despite his best efforts to convince them otherwise.

_"Sleep now. Ampelou will not harm humans."_

The light sting of the tendril across his face was almost instantaneous, and he just managed to wonder if they had meant to include Sam and Daniel in that promise before he floated into a warm, dreamless sleep.

-/-/-

Daniel was drowning in an aureate ocean of memories, liquid gold filling his lungs as a deluge of gilded images engulfed him.

 _The first time he'd kissed Sha're, tender in his attempt to reassure this beautiful stranger, and the pressure on his lips as she tentatively responded... Their last kiss before she was taken by Apophis, her passionate embrace the polar opposite of their first, her arms around his neck, fingers tangled in his hair..._ Now she was walking towards him with that smile reserved just for him – the smile that let him know that she absolutely loved him, which always prompted an imitation of itself on his own face. She was blurry, shimmering in the shining fluid, but he didn't mind – not when her hand reached to caress his face, dissolving the pressure in his lungs that made him gasp for air that wasn't within reach.

"My Daniel..." He was in their tent and she was shimmering still, but the way her lips curved at his confused blink was comfortingly familiar, and she spoke in the same soft tone she always had done. "You are safe now, my Daniel. I rescued you... But who will rescue Samantha?"

 _The moment her eyes had glowed and he'd realised she wasn't there any more... Jolinar, in Sam's body, telling him she knew where Sha're was..._ each memory rippled away before he could focus fully on it, taken on a current of amber and replaced by another, equally traumatic one as his dead wife still floated before his eyes.

"You're dead. I know you're dead, Sha're. Teal'c..." _The pain of his own wife, smothered by a parasite wrapped around her brain-stem, torturing him. The even worse pain of his best friend blasting her away, killing her abruptly and painfully with a staff blast._

With that heart-wrenching realisation, he was torn from her touch into the golden currents and more images. _The agony of radiation blistering his skin, choking his organs, as his friends watched his suffering in helpless despair..._ The memory trickled away again before the pain could stop, and now, as he tried to scream out through the molten gold in his throat. _Replicarter's sword-arm forming as he watched, powerless to stop her from plunging it straight through him, tearing through bone, organ, and flesh alike._

"What do you want from me?" The words tore from his lips and he could hear his anguished shout clearly, though he knew he was still drowning in a sea of golden despair as more and more memories taunted him with pain and loss as he balled his fists around shifting scenes, thrashing to escape this endless amber. A soft voice answered in reply, distorted by the gilt fluid filling his ears but still recognisable.

 _"Daniel?"_ And now Janet appeared in front of him, more realistic than the blurred memories – even Sha're - but still made ethereal by the way the water seemed to move away from her, like she wasn't even touching it. "Daniel, I need you to focus on me." She was wearing her BDUs, he noticed, and one of the caps – which always looked adorable on her. He tried to focus, even though he knew she wasn't real, because maybe if he focused she wouldn't go away and leave him with the other images. She smiled as their eyes met, and the water swirled around her but didn't wash her away.

"That's it, Daniel. You're safe now. But I need you to do something for me." At that, he screwed his eyes shut, willing more memories to flash her away.

"You're not real, Janet. You're just a trick."

She slapped him. It felt real enough. Now the blurriness was fading, the images sharpening. He was by the 'gate on the Ampelou planet, Janet knelt over him, fingers on his pulse point.

"Daniel! I need you to focus. I'm real, I promise." Her concern seemed real too, as did the softness of her hand, now cupping the side of his face in a way that might not be deemed wholly appropriate.

"Okay." He was just too damned exhausted to say anything else, so he waited for her to speak, unsure if he believed her or not, but glad of the relief from drowning in amber memories. She smiled a little, but the worry was still evident in her face.

"Daniel, I need you to tell me something. It's very important, and I don't have time to explain. You just have to trust me, okay?" Her thumb was stroking his cheek now, and he leant into the familiar comfort, aching beyond compare but oddly relaxed.

"Okay." The slight nod sent splinters of pain into his head, and he dropped it back into Janet's touch. She frowned, speaking quickly but gently still.

"Who does Sam care about most in the world? Who would she die to save, Daniel? ... Who does she _love_?"

He frowned, but she smiled and nodded, both hands now somehow cradling his head as she looked down at him. "This is important, Daniel. I need to know." That bossy tone was very Janet, and he was too tired to argue. She'd started to blur again, too. "Daniel, you need to stay awake. You have to tell me!"

"Janet, you know it's Jack..."  
Then Janet's face swirled away again, the scene around him vanishing into the yellowed depths, and a part of Daniel seemed to lurch painfully at the realisation that she was never there at all. And now he was alone, drowning like before – although without the memories, thankfully – sucking water into his lungs on instinct, and thrashing to reach a surface he couldn't see... before he faded into blackness now, sleeping within a dream.

-/-/-

The sting of the vines in her flesh, now around her waist and legs as well as her neck and arms, securing her to the wall, was the first thing Sam noticed as she drifted out of the now-familiar haze of the ampelou's sedative. The stalks coiled round her limbs stuck with blood as she tested them, attempting to move her arm a fraction – only succeeding in causing more pain, as the fibres shifted by the smallest amount over raw flesh.

Her eyes were still shut – an instinct picked up after one too many captures; never let the enemy know you're awake until you're ready. Even if the thick, rigid vine around her neck had permitted any freedom, she wouldn't have dared open them to see the blood she suspected was now dripping anew down into her hands, or the remains of her BDU jacket sleeves – now probably shredded by countless tiny filaments.

A gentle splashing from in front of her face was now audible over the roaring of blood in her eyes, and, now certain the pain had rendered her fully conscious, she dared to open her eyes a little.

Opis was watching her intently from the other side of a smooth wooden font of the same wood the chairs in the main chamber had been made from – or, more likely, grown from. The source of the splashing appeared to be the goa'uld woman's fingers trailing through the viscous amber liquid in the font that stood about the height of her hips, and, as Sam's eyes flicked back to her, Opis withdrew her hand. She was smiling almost tranquilly in contrast to her earlier mania, but that look of malice lurking in her her light brown eyes was unchanged. Sam noticed that her hands seemed completely dry - the fluid simply flowing off them - before all her attention switched to Opis, who had begun to move towards her slowly; her green silk clothing moving almost independently of the sway of her hips, like a field of grass in the wind.

Sam found that she could speak through lips and mouth still dry from the tranquilliser.

"Where's Daniel?" Though it was never wise to trust a goa'uld, they usually liked to tell you when they'd killed one of your friends, or to threaten you with it in exchange for information. Unless they were Ba'al. You couldn't trust anything that guy said.

Opis laughed – if she ever got out of this hell-hole, that sound would haunt Sam's nightmares for weeks after this mission; even if she was safe and curled up next to a sleeping Jack, Sam was sure she'd be plagued with memories of past traumas for hours before sleep finally crept over her.

The deposed 'goddess' drew closer to Sam, so close that the Colonel could smell the honey on her breath, before replying.

"With your little 'rescue party', I'm afraid." The honeyed voice matched her breath as she all but pressed herself against Sam to whisper in the Colonel's ear. "It seems the shol'va brought reinforcements this time... another of your 'teams', plus one more so-called 'warrior'."

Sam's tiny intake of breath wasn't missed by the goa'uld, who continued with a smile, confirming Sam's terrible suspicions.

"That's right, Colonel Carter; I have O'Neill."


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally a new chapter! Contains some fairly nasty Jack whump.

"You're lying." Sam forced herself to steel herself against Opis' news. If it was true, the last thing she wanted was for Opis to know how she felt about Jack. Her face hardened into a tight mask of indifference.

"Am I?" Opis took a few steps back and stood with her hands loosely clasped at the gathered material of her waist, golden brown eyes fixed on Sam's own.

"Colonel O'Neill doesn't go on missions any more." _Unless he was trying to save_ _ **you**_ _..._ Sam tried to suppress the pang of guilt that thought caused, failed, and spoke again to prevent it showing on her face. "You've mistaken someone else for him. Your intell must be out of date." If Opis _was_ bluffing, she might not know about Jack's promotion to General. At least, Sam hoped.

Opis let out a single, cackling laugh.

" _Colonel?_ Is that so?" Her tone was mocking, revelling in the information she was withholding from Sam. Sam raised an eyebrow, trying to maintain her cool demeanour while internally cringing away from Opis' confirmation of her suspicions. Opis continued, her eyes shining manically while her face remained calmly smug. "Perhaps it's your intelligence that's out of date, Colonel Carter. Was he not promoted following Anubis' attack on Earth?"

"Anyone could have known that." Every bounty hunter in the galaxy had been after them at one point, right? They were pretty much famous amongst the Goa'uld, Sam thought.

"Admittedly, even when my Lord Cronus was alive, details of your team were well-known amongst Jaffa and Goa'uld alike." She smiled again, the hint of mania creeping back onto her face. "But I have had no contact with anyone but my ampelou for a very long time. I was well-known too, and why should anyone let Cronus' queen live when she might well dispute their greedy looting of his property?"

Sam said nothing, focused on maintaining her mask of disgust and scepticism.

"You still refuse to believe I have O'Neill?" 

"Uh, yeah. Do you have any idea how many times you guys have tried this scam on us? You've given me no proof, and you want me to believe you just like that?" She shook her head in rejection. "Nope, not buying it."

Opis giggled, obviously pleased, though Sam had no idea why. If she had no proof, this scam was pretty much over. If she did offer some proof, and Jack had been captured, Sam could at least get an idea of the condition Jack was in, maybe try to rescue him. Or maybe he could rescue her and Daniel, while Opis was distracted. Despite the growing annoyance at Jack for putting himself in danger like this, she was more than a little relieved that he might be here. As a team, SG-1 had beaten enemies much tougher than this ex-consort of a system lord. The reassurance of that chain of thought broke through onto her face as a defiant, slightly self-satisfied expression. She saw Opis' smile falter then, replaced for a second by mild confusion before she reinstated her sickly sweet smugness.

"Why don't I show him to you, then? I'm sure you'll want to see with your own eyes the pain I've inflicted on your beloved General O'Neill."

 _'Beloved'? Where did she get that idea?_ If Opis didn't have Jack, that was a hell of a leap to make on her own. Sam's stomach knotted a little, despite the confidence she'd felt seconds before, and she reminded herself again that Jack was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

Opis carried on speaking, hopefully oblivious to Sam's conflicting emotions, and, turning, took a few light steps towards the font.

"You wanted to find out more about the lacrima heliandum, did you not, Colonel Carter?" She took a final step to stand a little left of the wooden font, and turned her head, focusing on Sam with a tilt of her head and a cruel smirk. When Sam didn't reply, Opis stretched her arm out over the centre of the font so the amber light danced across her fingers and palm as the sap-like liquid rippled. "One of its many uses is full control of non-sentient plants." She submerged the tips of her fingers, hands claw-like, in the lacrima heliandum. "Including, of course, the structure currently holding you." 

Opis shut her eyes for a second or two, and Sam could have sworn that she was actually glowing a little in the dim light of the chamber, waves of golden light oscillating under her skin. As Opis' eyelids fluttered open, however, Sam was distracted from the new almost-golden hue of Opis' irises as the vine at her neck slipped away, and those binding her arms, legs, and waist became solid and swollen, and began to half push, half lift her across the chamber with the soles of her boots skimming the polished wooden floor. Now able to move her head freely, Sam looked around for any kind of exit, but all she saw was the rough bark wall of the circular chamber, centred around the font of glowing liquid that Opis' fingers were still immersed in and which Sam was now moving rapidly towards.

Opis clenched her hand shut, still half in the aureate liquid, and Sam came to a halt at the edge of the basin. Now she could see clearly what it contained - what she supposed was this 'lacrima heliandum'. It was a syrupy liquid, slightly more viscous than water and somewhere between gold and amber in colour, and it shifted by itself in the basin - which, Sam could now see, was more a well, falling deep into the ground, well past the height of even the tallest tree they'd seen when they arrived. Veins of lighter gold fluid swirled almost vapour-like through the liquid, and it was these that seemed drawn to Opis, twining themselves around and into her fingers, causing the pulsing glow beneath Opis' skin that Sam had noticed before.

Sam forced herself to look away from the lacrima heliandum, and to focus on Opis, whose eyes shone gold, which, combined with her smirk, gave her a predatory aspect.

"Beautiful, isn't it? And incredibly useful. Before my arrival, the Senate had only limited control over it - opening doors, influencing tree growth... trivial matters." She swept her fingers idly through it now, dropping her gaze to stare into the well. "I find it much more... interesting."

Suddenly, her fingers stiffened, and Sam felt the vines around her arms do the same, only now they pushed her down instead of forward, dragging her wrists along the sides of the font and pulling her head across it. As she struggled to pull herself away, and her face hovered inches from the surface of the lacrima heliandum, Sam saw Opis extract her hand from the substance. A moment later, Opis' strong grip pushed her down into the whirling amber depths, holding her down firmly.

-/-/-

" _Colonel O'Neill, I presume."_ From behind a gilded haze, Sam saw Jack slumped against the bark wall of a cell identical to the one she and Daniel had been put in. He looked up groggily, before finding her and frowning, and Sam realised it had been her speaking with Opis' voice.

" _It's General, actually."_ She noticed he seemed quite calm about the whole 'being captured' thing. _"Are you this 'Opis' I keep hearing about?"_

Sam felt her own face - or, Opis' face - twist into that sickly smile she so detested.

" _My ampelou informed you of me?"_

" _Sure. 'Opis will explain', 'leader'... that kind of thing. Feel like explaining where my people are? I assume you have the other guy I brought with me, too?"_

" _Anders, yes."_ If Anders was here, that must mean the rest of SG-11 was too. That was comforting, although not comforting enough to stop the growing feeling of dread Sam felt as she watched the scene play out before her.

" _What about Carter and Daniel?"_

" _I... have them in my care, yes." Opis' voice was honeyed but something in her eyes must have made Jack even more suspicious. He sat upright, surreptitiously checking for weapons, all of which had been removed, along with his BDU jacket._

" _Care to release them?"_

_Opis laughed her tinkling, lilting laugh._

" _No."_ Behind the silken tone was a steel malice that chilled Sam to the core. More deadly than anything she'd seen of Opis so far - worse even than the mania. Pure, determined cruelty. _Jack's face set in a frown._

" _You see, I have a problem with that. And you'll have an even bigger problem, once our people back home realise you've kidnapped not one, but two diplomatic envoys." He paused, letting the full effect of that sink in. "You see? That doesn't look too great for you, does it?"_

Sam saw Opis lift a hand to about level with her ear, then felt the room tremble slightly. _An ampelou appeared at her side, holding a wooden bowl of the lacrima heliandum._

_”I promise you, O'Neill: it will be far worse for you and your team."_

Jack snorted, but Sam could tell he was trying to figure out what could be in the bowl. Opis slid her fingertips in, hand held straight, at a 45 degree angle (and Sam tried hard not to be reminded of a human-form replicator). _As her fingers moved slowly through the liquid, the liquid moved slowly up her hand, winding round her arm, just visibly shining through the semitransparent fabric of her sleeve, until there was none left in the bowl. She lifted her hand in front of her chest, turning it so the palm was upwards, and the lacrima heliandum flowed up to sit in her hand, forming an orb about 30cm in diameter that maintained both its shape and its liquid state._

_Jack's eyes were wide, but still he tried to play it cool._

" _Well that's pretty neat. I'll bet Carter'd love to have a look at that. Say, why don't you bring her here and we'll all have a nice, friendly chat about it, hmm?"_

Horrified, Sam saw a thin spool of the lacrima heliandum break off from the mass and head towards Jack as Opis lowered her arm and began to advance. _The mass shrank as the substance extended towards him, stretching out as if it were a living being desperately trying to reach him. He shrank back into the wall, where the bark cracked to allow vines to dart out and bind him still - neck, arm, waist, and legs, like Sam's had been, but with another around his temple, effectively strapping him to the wall and floor of the cell so tightly that it curbed the flow of blood somewhat and his limbs began to blanch._

_The thin cord of lacrima heliandum reached him and began writhing in front of his face like a charmed cobra, waiting for Opis to catch up. When she did, she knelt in front of him, mirroring the knelt position he was bound in._

" _It's no use." Jack struggled as Sam had, but couldn't move an inch with the cords bound so tightly round his limbs. "I don't know what you want, or what the hell that stuff is, but I'll be damned if you get anything out of me."_

Sam felt Opis' gleeful smile break across her face.

" _Oh, I assure you I'll get what I want, O'Neill. Not information - why torture you, when Colonel Carter will very soon give me that information freely? No, what I will get from you is much sweeter."_

_The restricted blood was now pooling in Jack's hands - held flat against the wall by his constraints - and what still managed to flow freely was rushing to his face as his body attempted to stay conscious against the pressure around his neck._

" _Oh really? And what's that then?" Jack's eyes followed the swaying lacrima heliandum wearily, blinking against unconsciousness._

" _Revenge." The spool of amber coiled like a snake about to strike. "And a new host, of course."_

_Jack's eyes clenched shut as Opis turned her hand and aimed the palm at him as if she were using a hand device._

Against all Sam's expectations, the lacrima heliandum taunting Jack twisted back a few inches, slithering partway back up Opis' translucent sleeve, and the vines embedded into his flesh actually loosened, leaving white imprints on skin reddened by a sudden rush of blood. _He fell forward, gasping for air, the bonds at his wrists falling completely away and allowing him to rest his hands on his knees. Opis stood, her arm falling to her side, though the aureate thread stretched to remain twirling blindly in mid-air._

_Opis watched, amused, until he finally recovered enough to look up at her and splutter out "A new host, huh?" His head dipped for a second as he took another deep breath, before raising it to look in her eyes and give one of his typically deadpan-in-the-face-of-danger comments; "I'll pass on that... Don't look very good in a dress." With a minor flick of his hand to gesture over himself in a attempt to emphasise his point, he leant back a little, supporting himself on hands placed at the top of his legs. "Thanks for the offer though. Really, I'm flattered."_

_Opis took a step forward, pushing the lacrima heliandum towards Jack's face once more._

" _Oh for cryin' out loud."_

" _Relax, O'Neill; your role in my procuring a new host is only as..." she searched a split second for the word, before the corner of her lip twitched upwards and she continued, "leverage, I assure you."_

" _Well there's a relief." His eyes flicked to the lacrima heliandum once again, and Opis followed his gaze. "And the glowy stuff-" he gestured weakly at it "-is for what, exactly?"_

" _Perhaps a demonstration is in order?"_

_Jack groaned, looking square at Opis as she brought her fingers into her palm to release them in a quick flicking motion. The lacrima heliandum left her and launched itself at him, forcing its way between his lips and flowing down his throat._

_The blood seemed to flush from the exposed skin of his arms, face, and neck, replaced instead with a yellow tinge._ Opis stepped forward - clearly revelling in this, by the expression on her face - and began to examine the effect her torture was having.

 _His skin seemed to dry out, cracking apart - first at the swollen, grey, joints of his fingers, then the softer skin on the underside of his arms - splitting from itself in great gashes from which no blood oozed._ Sam felt Opis' cruel curiosity well up inside her as she knelt once more in front of Jack, leaning forward to take a clenched fist in her hands. _Jack's face was screwed up in pain, teeth clenched in an effort not to cry out, unable to do anything but stay, petrified in place as the alien entity coursed through his veins._

_Opis took hold of Jack's wrist and squeezed hard, digging her nails deep to stimulate the swell of blood that would normally have come from the wounds all over Jack's skin. Instead of blood, her compression cause a light dribble of amber liquid to fill the lesion. She smiled again, and dropped his hand to the floor._

_The light dribble became a slow flow, oozing initially from the lesions on Jack's hand, but then spreading upwards across the flesh and oozing from the other wounds as well, extending itself to cover his arm, then his neck, and, from his neck, downwards to the rest of his body, leaving only his eyes free of it. He slumped back against the wall, displaced blood trickled slowly out of his nose, ears, mouth, even from the corners of his closed eyelids, and he seemed to have stopped breathing entirely._

_Opis reached out and placed her hand gently on Jack's amber-coated face for a second, before pressing in lightly and removing it promptly after._

_Instantly, the liquid changed, becoming a harsher yellow in colour. It began burning slowly through the flesh beneath it like acid, releasing a noxious green vapour as it did so. The soft tissues of his face and arms were reduced to red-raw flesh in less than a minute, and, sickeningly, white bone was soon visible as well. Jack yelled out in agony until the acid eating into his throat reduced his cries to strangled groans. Only Jack's clothes were still recognisable - his body was reduced to that of a weathered skeleton partly stripped of flesh._

Desperately, Sam tried to take control of this body she was trapped in - to reach through the filter of amber clouding her vision - but instead she felt herself begin to laugh terrifying, lilting, laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, massive thanks to Abby (Eisette on ff.net, anifay on Tumblr) for creating a really gorgeous cover for this for ff.net. You can find it at anifay.tumblr.com/post/33728768904


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